Les Sauvages
Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1683 to 1764
Les Sauvages by Jean-Philippe Rameau: play it with falling notes in your browser, on your computer keys, a touch screen or a MIDI keyboard. It is part of Klaviero Premium, and 49 pieces are free. The chart has 439 notes over 2:40, peaks at 3.4 notes per second, and Klaviero rates it tier 3 of 5.
Les Sauvages is a rondeau for harpsichord by Jean-Philippe Rameau. In 1725 French settlers in Illinois sent Chief Agapit Chicagou of the Mitchigamea and five other chiefs to Paris. They met Louis XV on 25 November and later performed three kinds of dances at the Théâtre-Italien, and those dances inspired Rameau's piece. He printed it in his third book of harpsichord music, the Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin. Its date is disputed: editors long gave 1728, and later research on the address Rameau gave on the frontispiece points to 1726 or 1727. In 1736 he reused the music in Les Sauvages, a new last entrée added to his opera-ballet Les Indes galantes. The chart is 439 notes over 2:40, never more than two struck together, at 2.7 notes per second on average and 3.4 at the busiest, 1:25 to 1:50. Speed is not what makes it hard. Every note lies between G3 and C6, so a 49-key keyboard covers it.
Rameau's rondeau inspired by dances six visiting Illinois chiefs gave in Paris in 1725.
It runs at about 2.7 notes per second and peaks at 3.4. The right hand plays 55% of the 439 notes and the left 45%. Klaviero rates it tier 3 of 5.
- Composer
- Jean-Philippe Rameau
- Composed
- 1725
- Period
- Baroque
- Notes
- 439
- Length
- 2:40
- Peak density
- 3.4 notes per second
- Difficulty
- tier 3 of 5
- Access
- Premium